Kiss of death: Teen dies after girlfriend gives him a hickey

A teenage boy has died from a stroke, believed to be the result of complications from a love bite from his girlfriend in Mexico City.

Julio Macias Gonzalez, 17, fell ill with convulsions while eating dinner with his family in the Iztapalapa borough of the Mexican capital.

Emergency services were called, but Gonzalez was pronounced dead at the scene.

Local media reports that Gonzalez had returned home to his family after spending the evening with his 24-year-old girlfriend, during which time she had given him a hickey or love bite on his neck.

Doctors were initially confused as to the reason for Gonzalez’s stroke, but after seeing the bruise on his neck theorised that the hickey had created a blood clot, which then travelled through his bloodstream to the brain, causing the stroke.

Mexican media reports claim the teen’s parents never approved of his 24-year-old girlfriend, named only as Iris, who they described as “controlling”.

Following the incident in July, Iris is reported to have gone into hiding to avoid both the teen’s family and intrusions from the press.

While not generally considered a dangerous sign of affection, Gonzalez’s death was the second reported stroke caused by a hickey. In 2011, a 44-year-old Mauri woman suffered a minor stroke and loss of movement in her left arm as a result of a love bite on the right side of her neck, with the “rare phenomenon” recorded in the New Zealand Medical Journal.